A/N: Hoo boy, back to this after finally finishing my single story Valkyries' Song of Battle. I'll spare you all the details of how much painstaking work went into that story. Speaking of my story, if you want to pass the time while all this crazy sh*t is going on, I highly recommend Senki Zeshhou Symphogear. It's on par with Fairy Tail as one of my absolute favorite anime of all time. Why should you watch it? Just check out the first episode because it really does a better job explaining what it is than I ever could (Warning: Sub only). With that shameless rec out of the way, let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and/or Akame Ga Kill. They belong to their original owners.

The Assassins of Fairy Tail

Job Thirty Eight: Chelsea's Inclusion

Every guild member in Hargeon was in high spirits as they were celebrating their hard-won victory over the Alverez Empire. The two members of the Spriggan Twelve were defeated and one was captured. However, not everyone was in a celebratory mood. In one of the buildings where it served as an infirmary, Gray, Juvia, Kagura, and the other members of Mermaid Heel all shared the same somber expression. They may have won the battle, but it came with costs. Their mood was slightly disturbed when they heard the door open and heard a familiar voice. "Jeez, you all look like crap." All of them looked toward the door and saw Leone still in her beast form standing at the entranceway grinning at all of them.

Kagura was the first to express how happy she was to see her fellow ally. "Leone!"

Juvia smiled as well at the other girl. "You're alright! It's good to see you agai-" She stopped speaking when she saw something Leone was obviously missing. The others noticed as well and were surprised to see that Leone didn't have her arm. Juvia was the first to speak out what everyone had on their mind. "What happened to your arm!?"

Leone glanced over to her missing arm. "Oh, this? It got cut off." The way she answered so nonchalantly was almost frightening to the group.

Millianna then noticed Leone was carrying something in her other hand and screamed. "Is that your arm!?" As soon as she pointed it out, the others saw it too and gasped in horror.

The only one not freaking out was Leone as she looked back at the group. "Well, yeah. Hey, does anyone mind reattaching this to me?" She held up her arm to the group. "Because it's not going to attach itself. Not without some help at least."

It didn't take long for Leone to sit down on one of the empty beds while Millianna was still slightly freaking out about the arm lying next to the blonde. She greatly hesitated to even touch the severed limb since someone had to hold it up and have it flush against the rest of Leone's arm. "Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross…"

Leone rolled her eyes at the way the other cat girl was acting. "Oh, come on, it's just an arm. It's not like it's going to bite you."

"I think that'd be even scarier," Gray commented.

Juvia noticed there was something awfully strange about Leone's injury. "How are you not losing blood?"

Her fellow guildmate was more than happy to explain and smiled at her. "Oh, it's because I'm still in my beast form. I'm having my muscles constricting so I don't bleed out. If I didn't have Lionel, I'm pretty sure I'd be dead a long time ago."

Juvia was amazed Leone's Imperial Arms was so versatile. Risley still had another question to add. "So, how is reattaching your arm going to work?"

That was another detail Leone was happy to explain. "Well, for one, because of Lionel's Trump Card, Regenerator. If my arm's reattached, it'll do the rest and heal up quickly. Funny enough, me and Lubb had a combo only we could use. If I ever did lose my arm, he'd stitch it back using Cross-Wire. But, since he's not here…"

Leone glanced over at Araña who had a needle and her web magic ready. She sighed as this was not how she imagined this day would go "And I suppose that's where I come in."

Millianna turned her head away with her eyes closed while her hands were almost touching the arm. Thankfully, Kagura came to her rescue and placed her hand on the other girl's shoulder. Millianna opened her eyes and saw Kagura smiling sweetly at her. "Let me do this." Millianna nodded at the other girl and moved back while Kagura grabbed the severed arm with no hesitation. It was still a strange sensation to her for holding a severed limb. She was even surprised that it still had some warmth to it, meaning that this happened very recently. Another question came to mind relating to Neinhart. Since his magic had the power to bring back those who died, Kagura wondered who exactly Leone had to fight. This person was probably the one who severed her arm in the first place. She held the arm carefully and made sure it was flush against the rest of Leone's arm. Once it was in place, Araña began stitching.

While she was busy, Leone thought now was a good time to start some small talk. "So, from all the partying I've seen while coming over here, I'm guessing we won the battle. Mind filling me in on what I missed. I was busy with…other things."

Gray opted to tell her what's happening now. "Well, Jellal and his followers are still chasing out the residual Alvarez troops, but at this point, it's only a matter of time until they're completely wiped out."

The mention of Jellal's name surprised Leone. "Wait, Jellal's here?! Damnit, I want to meet the guy!" The one chance Leone had to finally meet Jellal and she couldn't join and take out the last of the Alvarez forces because if she fought now, most likely her arm would come off.

Speaking of her arm, Araña finished up stitching Leone's arm and grabbed a nearby white cloth. She managed to tie it around Leone's shoulder and her arm to prop it up. Once it was firmly in place, Kagura let go of Leone's arm. "There we go. I used my strongest thread, but I advise you not to move your arm. Lest you want it to fall off again."

Leone grunted as she stood up and looked at her arm. "It should be good. Normally, I'd had to wait a while for something like this to heal, but since I've gotten a lot stronger, give me a couple of hours and it'll completely heal up real nice." While Leone was happy her arm was reattached, she did notice some key people weren't around with the rest of the group. "So, what happened to the others? Where's Erza and Wendy?" Her question brought back the somber expressions everyone had before, and Leone couldn't help but feel she brought up something she shouldn't have. "Uh, guys?"

Kagura looked away and looked at another bed. Leone looked in the same direction and saw Erza bandaged up and lying in one of the beds. From the looks of it to Leone, it seemed Erza had gone through hell. "Erza's injuries are…severe. We'd encountered one of the Spriggan Twelve, a man called Neinhart on one of the ships, but I was unable to help her. When Jellal and I came to help, she was heavily injured. It's most likely that she won't be waking up anytime soon."

Leone wondered what the hell happened to Erza to have her in a state like this? She was one of the strongest people Leone had met and seeing her lying in a bed all bandaged up made her wonder who could've done something like this to her.

"Laxus is in a similar state." Leone turned her attention to Kagura. "He had two big fights back to back, so he'll be out for a while."

So, not only Erza but also Laxus is out of the game for a bit. Leone couldn't help she got off easy compared to the others. Still, she was wondering about something else. Or rather, someone else. "Well, if Erza and Laxus are in such bad shape, why not have Wendy heal them? I'm sure that'll help, right?" As soon as she mentioned Wendy's name, Kagura lowered her head and had a very troubled expression as did the rest of the group. Leone had a bad feeling when she saw everyone's faces. "Hey, what's up? Did something happen to Wendy? Where is she?"

Kagura lifted her head and looked directly at Leone. "Follow me and…you should prepare yourself." She turned around and started walking. That bad feeling increased within Leone as she followed the other girl. They passed by a couple of beds before they arrived at one in the corner of the room. Now Leone knew why Kagura told her to prepare herself because what she saw made her eyes widened with shock and her heart drop. She saw Wendy lying on the bed bandaged from head to toe, even covering her eyes except for her nose and her mouth, and her hair was sprawled outward to the back of the bed. On top of her was Carla lying on top of Wendy sleeping but had a worried expression. What's more, thanks to her enhanced hearing, Leone heard that Wendy was barely breathing, and it was weak. She couldn't even fathom of seeing Wendy like this.

Just as Kagura thought, she couldn't bear seeing her little sister in such a state. "Out of all of us, Wendy suffered the most severe and critical injuries. It's almost as if every injury she'd experience all came back to her at once. Even the scar on her shoulder reopened. We tried the best we could, but…with how bad the state she's in, and judging by how she's breathing, I'm afraid there's a strong possibility that-"

Kagura felt a strong grab on her kimono and was jerked forward to see a very angry look from a very furious Leone. "Don't you even DARE think about finishing that sentence!"

Despite murderous intent in Leone's eyes, Kagura grabbed Leone's good arm and glared back at her. "Then what do you want me to say? How do you think I feel seeing my little sister like this!?"

Leone scowled angrily at Kagura. "Then why not get Chelia to heal her!? She's got healing magic too, you know!"

"Because Chelia lost her magic!" Kagura's words caught Leone off-guard and she let go of her kimono. She didn't let up on her glare toward Leone. "Think about it. If Chelia still had her magic, Wendy wouldn't be in this state, and Erza would've gained consciousness by now." She looked back at Wendy and her eyes softened. "From what I was told, it was during their fight against the Swordswoman of the Twelve. I remember Chelia carrying Wendy over her shoulder to the infirmary with a desperate look, begging us to help her. During the time we treated Wendy, Chelia kept crying and said how this was her fault. When we told her, we've done all that we could, she ran out. She didn't even look at Wendy like she'd be ashamed if she did."

Chelia. Leone couldn't imagine how she was feeling right now. She looked at Wendy again and took in the sight. Leone had seen the younger girl in similar situations, but none of them were as bad as this. Not even when her magic was running out back in her world. At least then Wendy had a shot of recovering. Now, she didn't know how Wendy would come out of this, if at all. What's worse, if she didn't make it, they'd be one dragon slayer short and Wendy was the support. Leone wished she could do something helpful but knew that she didn't have anything to offer. She clenched her hand tightly out of frustration knowing that she can't do anything to help. There was, regretfully, only one thing she can do. "So, what's our next move then?"

Gray knew Leone was taking this news hard. It wasn't surprising since she, Akame, and Chelsea were all close to her just as he and the rest of the guild are. He wanted to say some assuring words, but Gray knew that wouldn't be what Leone wanted to hear. So, he went with what's their next plan of action. "We're planning on going back to the guild."

"We're worried about how everyone is faring back there," Juvia added.

Leone sighed as she knew that was their best plan to do. There was one thing that slightly worried her. "What about Hargeon? Is everything going to be alright with us gone?"

Risley grinned confidently at the blonde. "You can leave the rest to Mermaid and Lamia, so don't worry."

That was good to know for Leone, but it didn't exactly cheer her up. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I guess we'll recover for a bit more before heading out." That's all she and everyone can do for the time being and Leone hated that. She opened her eyes to look at Wendy one more time before turning around and walking away with Kagura following her. However, Leone hated that bitter feeling of not being able to help Wendy.

B

In a quieter place of Hargeon, sobbing could be heard. Chelia was sitting down with her arms wrapped around her legs while the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. She felt tremendous guilt and regret about what happened to Wendy. Chelia even felt like her heart was breaking in two. "Wendy…"

"So, this is where you went." Chelia gasped softly as she lifted her head and turned around to see Lyon standing behind her. He gave his fellow guildmate a sympathetic look to her. "I heard what happened to you and what happened to Wendy." Chelia looked away from Lyon and lowered her head once again. All Lyon could do was just sigh. "Chelia, what happened to Wendy isn't your fault."

"But it is," Chelia replied as she hugged her legs tighter. "I gave up my magic for Wendy and look where it got her. She's lying in a bed and I don't know if she'll make it this time. If she's gone, then it's my fault that it happened. If I…could've helped in some way or found another way, or I could've stopped her from overdoing it then this wouldn't have happened, or this wouldn't have happened to her. I've never felt more useless!" She started to cry a little harder and had a hurt expression. "Wendy means everything to me. I love her so much and I can't do anything to help her. I couldn't then and I can't now. How am I supposed to live knowing that I'll be one responsible if she dies?!"

Lyon wished he had an answer or could reassure Chelia, but none came to him. He thought he could cheer Chelia up, but she was more torn up about this than Lyon thought and understandably. Chelia gave up her magic for a better future for everyone else, but what good is that future if the one you love won't be there with you anymore? Lyon figured that's what tearing up Chelia the most. The only thing Lyon could offer were words of mere comfort. "Chelia, just remember that all of us are here for you. Okay?" He didn't hear a reply and turned around to walk away to leave Chelia alone with her thoughts.

The tears continued to fall and Chelia felt her heart hurting worse as she remembered all the times she and Wendy shared together. She remembered working so hard to rescue Wendy from Leone and the others' world. How happy Chelia was to see her again and how terrified she was when she thought she'd lose Wendy. Now, Chelia was afraid of losing Wendy for good and can't even imagine would her life would be like without her. Chelia was fine with losing her magic. It was losing Wendy that terrified her the most. At this point, Chelia thought it'd take a miracle for Wendy to recover. It was almost laughable but, what else could she do? Nothing, because that's all she can do and hoped that miracle would happen. "Wendy. I wish…I wish that you come back to me."

B

In another part of town, two guild members were guarding a jail cell. Within that jail cell was Dimaria tied up to a chair and was handcuffed behind via magic sealing handcuffs. Her outfit was badly damaged due to her fight against Chelia and ultimately lost. In this situation, she couldn't help but remember what she said about Brandish when she heard her girlfriend was capture. "What's with that? Randi's been captured by the enemy? How pitiful." How ironic she made fun of Brandish being captured by the enemy and lo and behold, she was captured. Now that Dimaria was experiencing it for herself, her body shivered in fear and tears started to roll down her cheeks. If this was how she was treated, then she became deeply worried about how Brandish was being treated. The thought itself terrified her to no end. "Randi…"

B

Contrary to what Dimaria was thinking of what was happing to Brandish, it was the exact opposite. Makarov was grateful that Brandish is willing to work with them. "So, I see you've finally come around and are willing to share information with us."

It wasn't that simple for Brandish as she still had priorities. "This is a one-time deal. I am a citizen of Alverez first and foremost. I cannot simply betray my homeland. And that is exactly why I refuse to become your ally in any capacity." She turned her attention to Lucy. "That said, I am in debt to Lucy."

Lucy was caught off guard by Brandish's comment. Happy himself was confused by what Brandish meant by that. He looked up at Lucy with that same confused expression. "What exactly did you do, Lucy?" Lucy tried to recall what she did to make Brandish be in debt to her, but couldn't remember at all.

Brandish looked at the rest of the guild. "And for that reason, I am willing to negotiate with August for you." Her offer to negotiate surprised everyone in the guild while it left Natsu a little confused. However, there was a limit to what she can do concerning Irene. "Excluding Irene, there is no mage in existence who can stand up to August. In Alverez, while August is referred to as the 'Calamity', Irene bears the title of 'Despair'. The two of them are peerless in skill. In Irene's case, we share no personal relationship and there is nothing I can do to stop her. But…as for August, I have known him since I was very small. As a result, I may be able to persuade him to pull back, depending on how the negotiations unfold."

Almost everyone in the guild was elated to hear that. If things went their way, they wouldn't even need to fight August. Even Makarov was impressed by the offer. "That…is a great proposal. I am thankful for your help."

Mest was part of the minority as he had strong doubts about what Brandish was offering them. "Master, you mustn't accept such fabrications so easily! This must be their plan! She'll use the opportunity to escape!"

Akame was in the same boat as Mest but for a different reason. "It is really possible for her to talk August out of this? Can it really be that easy?" The assassin part of Akame didn't want to believe it was true. If an enemy was a threat, they had to be dealt with no matter what. However, August was no normal enemy from what she'd heard of him. If she were to face August, there would be no doubt she wouldn't even get close to him with Murasame. But with the more sensible part of Akame, she wanted to believe such a tactic can work. She had to keep reminding herself that Earthland was not like the Empire. There was always another way to deal with the enemy if the chance provided it. This conflict within her made Akame feel very uneasy.

Whatever the case, Brandish really didn't care what their thoughts were of her. "Believe me or don't. It makes no difference to me." She received some intense glares from Natsu, Mest, and Akame.

"I believe you!" Lucy declared.

Mest turned to the blonde not believing she bought Brandish's story. For Natsu, that's all he needed to hear and grinned. He slammed his right fist into his other hand. "Then it's decided. I'll be the one to beat the crap out of August!"

And Lucy karate chopped the back of Natsu's head and was rightfully pissed at what he said. "NO, YOU WILL NOT!"

B

Up at northern Fiore where the frigid winds blew in the night sky, the Scarlet Despair, Irene Belserion was staring at the mountain range and taking in the white landscape. "Zonia, the sacred mountain. This land, at one time, was the site at which the black and white angels clashed. The white angel emerged victorious, and as a result, snow of the purest white has continued to fall on these mountains ever since."

Behind Irene were two young girls. One had orange hair put up in short pigtails and wore a white coat with golden border straps and a frilled skirt. She giggled happily at the older woman. "Wow, Lady Irene! You're this well versed on the old folk tales of this puny country!"

Alvarez Empire Irene Squad member: Juliet Sun

The other girl next to Juliet gave her quite a nasty glare. She wore a skin-tight black bodysuit with net-shaped designs on the sides and forearms and a navy-blue zebra-patterned cloak with a crescent moon design on the back. She had black hair and wore a navy-blue bandana with golden borders and a moon-shaped ornament on the back of her head. "You idiot! Did you forget that Lady Irene is originally from Ishgar?"

Alvarez Empire Iren Squad member: Heine Lunasea

Irene turned around and gave Heine a stern look. Juliet gave her squadmate a mischievous look at her. "Uh-oh. I wonder was it really the smartest idea to bring up that subject?"

Heine realized her mistake and became slightly fearful of what her master would do to her. "Ah, no! I was simply…"

To her relief, Irene smirked at Heine and that took that as a sign that she could calm down. "The white and black angels. I'm sure they were the spitting image of you girls."

Juliet cheered at the idea. "Yay! I wanna be the black one!"

"You're obviously freaking the white one, you moron!" Heine scolded.

Since she brought it up, Irene thought of another fun question for her two subordinates. "Which begs the question, if you two were to battle, who would it be the one to come out victorious? Shall we find out?" The two girls were obviously not a fan of the question and feared the idea. Irene chuckled as she turned away from them. "I'm joking, of course." Juliet and Heine sighed in relief. "Supposedly, the two angels were disputing over which of them would claim a certain man. A wonderful story, but as wonderful as it is…" She slightly raised her staff and set it in the snow. "It's starting to feel a bit nippy here, wouldn't you agree?"

Not far from Irene and her squad, Gajeel and his team split into two groups. Elfman and Lisanna were busy fighting off the enemy while Gajeel, Levy, Pantherlily, Mirajane, and Chelsea were busy rescuing the injured Blue Pegasus and Sabertooth guild members. Gajeel managed to rescue Sting and saw how badly hurt he was. "Sting! Pull yourself together man!"

Sting groaned in pain and slowly opened his eyes to see Gajeel hunched over him. "Ga…jeel…" The iron dragon slayer lifted Sting's head and brought him closer. "How…How is everyone else?"

"We're rescuing them all now. They'll make it." Gajeel reassured.

Despite that, Gajeel saw tears forming at the corners of Sting's eyes and saw shame in them too. "I'm pathetic. I'm so god-damn pathetic…!"

"You can leave the rest in our hands. All that pain and frustration building up in you now, I'll make sure to return it in spades!" Gajeel made sure he'd keep that promise and set Sting back to the ground.

"Gajeel!" Gajeel turned to Levy and noticed something odd was happening.

Elfman, Mirajane, and Lisanna also noticed something was going on and it was happening before their eyes. If Chelsea wasn't here to see it, she could never believe something like this was happening. "No way. The landscape…it's…" The snow that was prevalent across the mountain and beyond melted and was replaced with flowers in full bloom. Within seconds, the cold mountain with frigid winds now had a beautiful, warm landscape with flowers spread out as far as the eye could see.

And this drastic transformation was caused by Irene herself. Juliet cheered once again at what her superior had done. "Nice one, Lady Irene! Not that I'm surprised."

Heine took in the newfound warmth and enjoyed it much more than the cold. "It's so warm…"

Honestly, it was a simple task for Irene. They still had to deal with their…guests. "It seems we have some party crashers. Bloodman, Larcade, are you ready to give them a warm welcome?" Not too far from Irene, Bloodman and Larcade oversaw the battle near them.

Gajeel and the rest stood around Sting as he propped himself up on a single arm. He placed his other hand on his face and never felt so crushed before. "Damn it. God damn it!"

Rouge shared his guild master's feelings about their enemy. "They've got three monsters on their side."

Hearing that didn't spook Gajeel at all. Instead, he gave his traditional grin and laugh. "Well, ain't that a coincidence…." He was ready for the fight ahead and Elfman, Lisanna, and Mirajane activated their Take-Over magic. Lily was also ready for the upcoming fight. "Because we've got seven monsters over here!"

Levy wasn't so sure about the iron dragon slayer's comment about all of them. "Uh, does that mean me too?"

Chelsea shared Levy's confusion. "Wait, why I'm included in this?!"

B

On their way walking out on a rural road, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Brandish were on their way to meet up with August. Natsu couldn't help but keep grinning about their enemy and what he could do. "August, eh? I wonder what kind of magic he uses."

Lucy was obviously not as ecstatic as Natsu was since they were going to confront one of the strongest members of the Spriggan Twelve. "You do understand that we're going there in order to negotiate, right? Whatever you do, don't go picking a fight. I'm asking you nicely here."

Brandish agreed with Lucy along with giving a warning. "If you do end up starting a fight, you'll be obliterated that very moment. Considered yourself warned." Happy seemed nervous and took Brandish's warning to heart. "August is actually a gentle person by nature. Amongst the Twelve, he is by far the easiest to talk things out with. However, the emperor, Zeref, was it? At any rate, his loyalty towards the emperor burns fiercely."

Hearing that made Lucy rethink that this may not be as easy as she thought it'd be. "If that's the case, how do you plan on reasoning with him?"

"Good question." Brandish causally replied which didn't fill Lucy with much confidence.

Natsu stopped walked and the others did as well. He glanced behind as he sniffed a few times. "C'mon, give it up you two. You're standing out like a sore thumb over there."

From behind the tree, Akame stepped and calmly looked at the group. She should've known Natsu would be able to detect their presence. Hiding her magic and aura or not, he could still locate her via her scent. After all, Natsu was a dragon slayer like Wendy. Meanwhile, Mest peeked out, keeping his distance. "I can't believe you two actually trust that woman."

Natsu obviously didn't have a problem with what he was doing. "I told ya, didn't I? She's not all that bad."

Mest still wasn't convinced. "Even so, that's not enough reason to go so far as to release her magic sealing stone cuffs. She's supposed to be our prisoner of war!"

Despite his complaint, Natsu just smiled at Mest. "Hey, don't sweat the small stuff."

Mest immediately went up to Natsu's face and couldn't make heads or tails of what was going through Natsu's head. "Natsu! I'd really like to know what's floating around in that head of yours because it's certainly not a functioning brain!"

While that was going on, Akame wondered something of what the other group was doing. "What I want to know is that are all of you really going to walk the entire way?"

"There's no way in hell I'm riding in any carriages!" Natsu declared.

"And I can only carry one person at a time." Happy pointe out.

Since Natsu was obviously not a fan of transportation and Happy can only carry one person, Brandish thought of a solution to all their problems. "I may have an idea." In the next second, Brandish drastically increased Happy's size to gigantic proportions.

Naturally, Lucy freaked out while Natsu was very impressed. Akame was in awe of Happy's sudden giant size. "He's gi-normus!"

"Whoa! It's a colossal Happy!"

Brandish smirked as now all their problems were solved. "Now, we can all ride…" And she gave Happy's leg a hug while having strange, happy expression. "~On this fluffy-wuffy guy~."

Lucy wasn't prepared to see a change in demeanor from a person like Brandish. "Is she making a cutesy face?"

Seeing Happy being turned big gave Natsu an idea of his own. "Turn me into a giant too!" The only one not impressed by this was Mest as he was still cautious.

Happy suddenly picked up Lucy with paw which surprised her and took quite a liking with his newfound size. "I have a feeling right now…I'm the coolest cat in the world!"

Natsu laughed in agreement. "Damn right! You're not just cool, you're ice cold!"

The only one not enjoying this was Lucy. "You're freaking me out! Put me down!"

B

In the Fairy Tail guild basement, Cana was heavily out of breath as she was on her hands and knees while Mavis was badly damaged. Even so, Mavis knew it'd take more than this for the first phase of her plan to work. "Not good enough. You must use your abilities to the fullest. Channel all of your might and destroy me."

Cana raised her head and still had doubts about using her full power on the 1st guild master. "I…I just can't do it. You may be a thought projection, but you're still my friend. There's no way I can go all out on one of my friends."

Mavis looked at Cana with gentle eyes and was reminded of someone she once knew a long time ago. "You know, Cana, you bear a striking resemblance to a dear, old friend of mine. Well, your hair looks similar. Sort of."

Cana felt like she was somehow insulted by her 1st master's comment. "That's not much of a striking resemblance!"

Despite her remark, Mavis continued. "She passed away at a very young age, but even after she was gone, she continued supporting me. She gave me the power to press on despite all odds. If Zera had lived on, she may have grown up to be a woman like you. That what I'd like to think."

"Zera?" This was the first time Cana had heard the 1st master had even mentioned this Zera person before.

Now that Mavis thought about it, she imagined Zera if she acted like Cana. She imagined Macao and Wakaba drunk and wanting to drink with Zera while she was holding a barrel of booze. "Zera! Let's drink until the sun comes up today!"

"Whoo!"

"Hic! This's mah boyfriend. Y'can't have 'em."

Mavis immediately took back what she said about Zera becoming a person like Cana. "Actually, forget everything I just said."

Now Cana took that as an insult to her. "You're a pretty rude ghost, you know that!"

Mavis placed her hand where her heart was and had a sad smile on her. "Zera lives on within my heart, even to this day. Not in this empty spirit body, but in my heart." She looked directly at Cana with her eyes full of resolve. "There's only one person in the world who is capable of freeing Zera and I from this crystalline coffin, and that's you, Cana. You will cast this spell. Not to attack a comrade, but to save one."

B

Back at Northern Fiore, Gajeel and his group fought against the Alverez Army. They were doing the best they could despite the overwhelming difference in numbers. In one group of the army, some soldiers were screaming in pain as large needles sprouted from the ground and impaled them through the front and the back. The other soldiers were on edge and didn't know where the next one would come out. "Damn it! Where the hell is the enemy? How are they doing this?!"

Unbeknownst to them, one soldier was not like the rest. He was strangely calm under the black mask despite what was happening. Then again, it was Chelsea. She managed to sneak in and decided to pick off the soldiers one by one from within. It certainly was the better option than just taking them all head-on at once. She may have magic, but Chelsea was nowhere near as a powerhouse like the others. This was her best option. However, being surrounded by a large group of their enemy was the least of her problems. There was something far greater bothering her and scared her to no end. "I've been sensing it for a while now and I still can't believe it's real. There're three impossibly huge auras around this mountain. One of them feels so strange like it's not even human. The second one is even weirder because…there's no way. It's impossible for two people to have the same kind of aura. And the third one…" She looked off to the distance where Irene was. "This one is the strongest out of the three and what's more terrifying is that it blankets the entire mountain. Maybe even beyond. Leone and Akame were right; these Spriggan Twelve people make Esdeath look like nothing more than an amateur. How else would someone have the power to change an entire mountain's climate and landscape?! Just what did I get myself into!?" Whatever the case, if Chelsea ever encountered one of the three Spriggan Twelve members, there was an overwhelmingly good chance she would not survive. The best Chelsea could do now was just pick off the enemy army one by one stealthily.

Lily took out a small number of soldiers, but more surrounded him. "Gajeel, there're too many enemies! We're getting nowhere!"

Gajeel clapped his hands together above him. "Yeah, yeah, I heard the first time!" His hands formed a giant iron sword and slammed it on the ground. "KARMA DEMON: IRON GOD SWORD!" The attack tore through the ground and any enemy that found himself in the attack's path.

Off to the distance, Lector and Frosch were impressed by how hard Gajeel and the others were fighting. "Gajeel's still a badass, that's for sure."

"I think so too."

Meanwhile, Sting was sitting against a rock with his hands covering his face. He still felt shame that he failed as a guild master. Rogue wasn't used to seeing his friend act like this. "Sulking is not a good look for you."

His comment didn't help Sting much. "I couldn't do a damn thing. Some master I turned out to be."

Sting then felt his arm being grabbed and was pulled up. Only to be slapped across the face by a pissed off Yukino. Everyone else stared at Yukino dumbfounded at what they had just witnessed. "You are the master and that's exactly why…at times like these, you need to encourage everyone!" Her words finally reached Sting and they resonated strongly within him. Yukino pulled her hand back and held it with her other while looking a little guilty for what she did. "I know you have the power to do just that."

Sting looked at Yukino's hand and gently took it to examine it. "I'm sorry. That must've hurt."

Yukino slightly blushed at the sight of her guild master holding her hand. "N-Not at all. I'm the one who hit you, after all. I'm sorry if it stung a bit." Yukino still felt bad for what she did to her guild master. "I…I have no idea what came over me. Please excuse my actions."

Sting didn't think that way at all for what Yukino did to him. "Having to knock some sense into a pathetic master like me. There's no way it wouldn't hurt." He let go of Yukino's hand and smacked both sides of his face. "Thanks, Yukino, for opening my eyes. We're going to continue to grow and surpass every challenge that comes out way." Yukino's face immediately lit up with happiness and the other guild members were glad Sting snapped out of his funk. "Listen up! If you can move, then stand up follow me!" Sting put his left arm up and the rest of the guild rallied behind him "WE TIGERS STILL HAVEN'T EATEN OUR FILL! WE'RE GOING TO FEAST FOR FIVE DAYS, STARTING NOW!"

"That goes double for the Pegasi!" Hibiki added.

Jenny wasted no time in repeatedly kicking one of the Alverez soldier's in the face. "Which one of you assholes was gawking at my panties? Was it you?! And for the record, I usually wear much cuter ones!"

Eve and Ren were crying as they wanted to avenge Ichiya's "death". "Revenge for Ichiya! Your death won't be in vain!"

"It's not like I cared about you or anything, but, damn, why did you have to go and die!"

"You guys do know he's still alive, right!?" Levy pointed out.

A few of the Alverez soldiers suddenly floated up and were blasted by explosions, compliments of Minerva. "I ragdi (Vanish)!"

Orga and Rufus smiled knowing she was back to her old self. "M'Lady is back in action!"

"As I recall, she was on the verge of losing her temper."

Minerva smiled at her fellow guildmates and she was only getting started in obliterating their enemy. "These scoundrels made our master cry. And for that sin, they deserve no mercy."

Rogue attacked one of the soldiers with his shadow magic and smiled over at Sting. "You hear that, Master Crybaby?"

Sting knew that name would stick around with him for a while. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

Then Rogue saw Yukino crying for some reason. "Come on, not you too!"

From afar, Irene and her squad saw that the battle had escalated. Juliet was amazed at how quickly the enemy recovered. "Oh, even the guys who we got captured are full of pep all of a sudden."

Heine turned to her master. "What do you suggest we do, Lady Irene?"

Irene only smiled at the battlefield. "This is no problem at all with Bloodman and Larcade on the battlefield. We need only watch."

As the battle ramped up, random guild members started to encounter a strange black mist and coughed up blood before falling to the ground. Everyone knew what this meant and ran away in terror. "It's the Grim Reaper!"

"The Grim Reaper has appeared again!"

"Run for your lives!"

"We're going to get crucified!"

"I don't want ever want to go through that kind of humiliation again!"

Behind the terrified crowd, the black mist blew away and Bloodman appeared to deliver death yet again. However, what Bloodman didn't expect was an iron rod hitting his shoulder. Everyone turned around the iron rod push the Grim Reaper back and more iron rods struck his body. He kept going until Bloodman slammed against a tree with an iron sword piercing his body from Gajeel himself. Everyone else was amazed that Gajeel got close enough to even attack the Grim Reaper. As Gajeel pinned his enemy, he remembered two things. One was his promise he made to Sting earlier. "All that pain and frustration building up in you now, I'll make sure to return it in spades!" The other was a memory he now hated. A memory of when he first crucified a heavily injured Jet, Droy, and Levy to a tree as a message for Fairy Tail way back then. "How do you like being crucified?" He gave Bloodman a furious glare. "For bringing back the worst memory of my life, you're going to feel my full wrath."

He heard a nefariously deep and gravelly laugh from Bloodman and he stared back at the iron dragon slayer. "What you have just touched is death itself."